


Gotta Keep 'Em On Their Toes

by Sorbus



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Humour, kyoko is the boss, reborn is Done With It, reverse au, this was my secret santa to good friend letti
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 01:11:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13136016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sorbus/pseuds/Sorbus
Summary: Reborn approached his new student as he approached everything in life. With ease, confidence and the assurance that everything would go his way.He would be, as with many things to come, wrong.





	Gotta Keep 'Em On Their Toes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyLettuce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLettuce/gifts).



Reborn was alone with the target. The parent was downstairs, oblivious. No other person was within the vicinity of the house, and nobody else was expected to be so within the next few hours. He had successfully tricked his way in under the guise of a home tutor – and god,  _ how  _ he managed to pull  _ that _ out of his ass even he didn’t know – and was alone with them within their room. It was time to pull out the big guns, quite literally.

“I am not really a home tutor,” he started, voice serious and gun-Leon in his hand. He tipped the front of his hat downwards for dramatic effect. “I am really the world’s greatest hitman, here to shape you into the leader of the biggest mafia family  _ ever _ .”

He pointed the gun towards his new student, expecting any number of reactions: disbelief, shock, rejection. Dino certainly had dragged his heels at becoming a mafia boss, and he had already been in the mafia.

Yet- 

“ _ Oh! _ ” Sasagawa Kyoko smiled so brightly Reborn had the impression of sparkles emitting from her very aura. “That’s nice!”

This one was going to be different. 

– x –

Kyoko Sasagawa was nothing like he had expected. She wasn’t poor academically, she wasn’t unpopular. She wasn’t too unladylike or too soft. She’d successfully handled a student – Kensuke Mochida – who’d suffered from sky-rejection with no input needed. She had a number of potential guardians circling her already, and at least two of them were actually viable for the position.

She also, somehow, seemed to have no regrets. 

“But what’s the point?” She asked, ever-present smile on her face, and ever-gentle tone of voice., “Whatever happens, happens, right?”

Ideologically Reborn agreed with her. It was a good approach to the mafia in all honesty, and far be it for him to cause a student to regress yet– 

“So you regret  _ nothing? _ ”

How was he supposed to bring out her flame potential is she had  _ no regrets _ ? The dying will bullet wasn’t perfect – evidently – but usually it was covered because most nice,  _ normal _ people regretted at least one thing. 

Reborn needed  _ something _ . Kyoko’s older brother – who would have been the ideal choice for the staunch traditionalists – had sun flames. There was no need to prove  _ his _ flame potential – half in a constant state of dying will as he was. But Kyoko – the last viable heir to the Vongola – had to be a sky. There was no other option. 

“Hmm,” she relaxed on the blanket on which they were having their picnic, appearing to think hard about it. Reborn felt a tendril of hope. “Nope!”

He slumped. It was hopeless. 

“Oh!”

His head snapped up. Kyoko had a look of revelation on her face. Was this finally,  _ finally,  _ something?

“I wish Sawada stood up for himself more!”

Reborn smacked his hand to his face. What sort of regret was that? There was no guarantee of what she’d do if Reborn shot her with that on her mind. 

Still… it was the first thing he’d gotten in a month. He could work with it. He had to. His reputation was on the line. 

‘Sawada’ – Sawada Tsunayoshi, age fourteen –  was in Kyoko’s class, and has been in her class for years. Reborn had passing familiarity with him – he’d studied all the people surrounding Kyoko in preparation for finding some guardians – but after Kyoko mentioned him, Reborn went all out in researching the kid. If luck would have it, he might arrange some sort of confrontation that would force Kyoko to stand up for the kid. Then introduce the bullet, and boom. Success. 

It didn’t seem like it’d be that difficult. ‘Need to stand up for himself’ could describe Sawada’s entire life. He was bullied by teachers and students alike. He was unpopular, struggled inside and outside of class, and seemed incapable of standing up to a fly. His only parent – Sawada Nana – was a widower. Her husband died in a drilling accident when the kid was five. They lived modestly but didn’t truly struggle – though the lack of wealth didn’t really help Sawada any in the neighbourhood they ran in. 

He was utterly unremarkable. Reborn couldn’t fathom how Kyoko had any thoughts about him, much less her, seemingly  _ only _ , regret. 

Reborn forged a love note – juvenile and below his skillset – from Sawada to Kyoko and arranged it so it would ‘accidentally’ slip out of her locker when Mochida was passing. He’d pick it up, become enraged, and challenge Sawada. Sawada, who would be packing up in Kyoko’s classroom, would cower and whimper, and Kyoko would feel enough regret to stand up for him. Hopefully. 

It went fine right up until Mochida burst through the door to Kyoko’s classroom. 

“Sawad– _ gack! _ ” 

He went flying. Hibari Kyoya lowered his tonfa. 

“No shouting in the corridors.”

The prefect, seemingly content with the punishment, disappeared just as quick as he appeared in the first place. Sawada stared at the door with wide eyes, before scrambling to pack his things and get away as soon as possible. 

Neither he nor Kyoko spoke to one another. 

A complete failure. 

– x –

Plan two had less variables. Kyoko often spent time with her older brother as he went through boxing practice. She attended every week without fail. The elder Sasagawa, Ryohei, was a nightmare of enthusiasm and determinism. It took less than three sentences to have him convinced Sawada’s dream was to become a boxer, but he was too shy to go to ask for training. 

“ _ Sawada!” _

Ryohei was liked a force a nature. He burst into Sawada’s classroom, succeeding where Mochida had failed before. He stalked up to Sawada and bodily grabbed him.

Well, Sawada wasn’t getting out of that. 

“Ah- uhm,  _ Sasagawa _ ?” Sawada stuttered, pushing ineffectively against the older student. “Where are you taking me?”

“Boxing!”

Reborn could see Sawada pale from his perch on the other side of the school. Wonderful. 

He stuttered and stumbled all the way to the boxing club practice room. He shyly donned the practise gear, and even waved awkwardly at Kyoko who was cheering from the side-lines. He did not, as Reborn expected, protest once.

Ryohei didn’t really know his strength, and it was a bit sad to see that Sawada could take a beating like a champ, but whatever Reborn had planned somehow morphed into the weirdest motivational lesson Reborn had ever seen. Ryohei would shout out whatever encouragement that came to his mind – which, really, mostly consisted of ‘extreme’ or ‘fight on’ – and Sawada tried his hardest to soak in some of whatever he was supposed to being taught. Honestly, if Reborn wasn’t banking on him to be a complete and utter wimp and incite some regret in his student, he would have been proud. 

Instead they spent an hour sparring, and another hour learning techniques, then cooling down, showering then changing, and by the time they were done everyone was feeling happy and not the slightest bit regretful. 

“That was great Sawada!” Ryohei shouted. He’d been shouting for hours. There must have been something abnormal about his vocal cords, or his sun flames healed him as he went along. Reborn didn’t quite know which was more out of the realm of normal for an underaged civilian. 

“Yeah!” Kyoko added, pumping a fist in the air. “I’m so glad to see you get some confidence, Sawada.” 

She smiled, and Sawada went beet red. Well. There was the motivation to go through with the crazy boxing session, at least. 

“Thank you, ah, Sasagawa.” He fidgeted. “And, uh, Sasagawa.”

“Call me big bro,” Ryohei shouted right as Kyoko said, “Call me Kyoko!”

Sawada went even redder, if that was possible. His voice was soft and unsure, but it had genuine warmth in it. “Th-thank you, big bro. Kyoko.”

“No problem, Tsuna!” Kyoko smiled, it was bright, and sparkling. 

Reborn ended up achieving the exact opposite of what he’d hoped to achieve. Well, he thought, seeing the happiness on his student’s face, it wasn’t an entire waste. 

– x –

Reborn didn’t engineer this one – he was bad, sure, but he wasn’t at the level where he’d arrange for a kid to get beaten up. Yet.

That didn’t mean the group of thugs out to harass Kyoko hadn’t stopped her in the street. Her brother had gone on, but Sawada was there. He’d stepped up to confront them, and Kyoko stepped up beside them. She wasn’t one to back down.

Reborn grimaced. This wasn’t an ideal situation. He didn’t want his student hurt – nor did he want Sawada hurt, he conceded reluctantly. But he’d make do. Reborn had seen the slightly desperate look on his student’s face a number of times before in his lifetime. That wish that you were stronger, had trained more, done more, so that you weren’t stuck in the situation confronting you. 

It was unpleasant, and didn’t make for a good first experience but...

He cocked his gun, dying will bullet at the ready. He  _ was _ the world’s greatest hitman. 

One of the thugs went in for a punch, and it looked like it would  _ hurt _ . Reborn fired, with the same certainty that he’d done a thousand times before. It hit, and not five seconds later a body rose from the ground, sustained by beautiful, pure sky flames.

It was the wrong body.

“Shit.” Reborn muttered. Sawada let out a roar and beat the thugs into the dirt. “ _ Shit. _ ”

Was Kyoko a sky? Had he read it wrong? He didn’t think so, but she had obviously been revolving around Sawada – who was  _ definitely _ a sky, those flames couldn’t be anything else – and she hadn’t shown any hint of flames yet so–

Vongola was ruined. It would collapse without a leader. And what’s worse, a direct blood descendant was going to bond with another,  _ unaffiliated _ sky –  _ two _ direct blood descendants, Reborn thought grimly, remembering Ryohei. It would be a clusterfuck of massive proportions. 

Sawada eventually stopped fighting, all his opponents out unconscious. There was a small burning flame left dancing on his knuckles, and he looked like hell. Nobody spoke. 

“Woah!” Kyoko’s voice cut through the tension, high pitched a sounding delighted. “You’re like me, Tsuna!”

And with that, she raised a hand, lighting it with her own sky flames, and Reborn was going to faint. God. There were two of them. 

“I am?” Sawada was wide eyed, and more than a little hopeful, and so painfully surprised that he had anything in common with Kyoko that it hurt Reborn a little to see a sky look like that. 

“Yeah,” Kyoko smiled. She grasped him by the hand, flame to flame and, well–

The warmth from their synchronisation –  _ sky to sky, holy mother of god –  _ washed over Reborn like a mother’s hug. It was overpowering, all-encompassing. 

It was outright insulting that after all this time, all this  _ effort _ , Kyoko didn’t even go near a bullet, no. She lit her flames, all by herself, as if she’d been doing it for goddamn  _ years _ . 

Reborn was going to quit. He was. 

The two skies were happily oblivious below, tentatively holding hands and smiling at each other. 

It was still going to be a clusterfuck. Reborn had two skies to train now – and by god  _ he would train them for this _ . But instead of the Vongola dying out, he got himself a viable heir and another sky, buy one get one free, with nobody else to contest for him. From the looks of it, Vongola’s future bloodline would be secured too. 

Kyoko’s smile could split her face it was so wide. Sawada’s smile was small, but equally sincere, full of tender love and hope. 

Reborn was going to make them pay. 


End file.
